Meet the PayPal Mafia

The word ‘Mafia’ is typically synonymous with organised crime, clandestine scheming and a sinister territorial influence. Godfather clichés aside, let’s introduce you to a group of people who are known as the Dons of Silicon Valley.

Sticking together

This ‘outfit’ is fully legit – it’s a group of tech entrepreneurs who set up and worked at PayPal, which launched in 1998 then later sold to eBay.

Since selling the money transfer platform back in 2002, the Family has been loyally working together – founding, funding and leading some of the world’s most impressive tech ventures including LinkedIn, YouTube and Yelp.

Web of business relationships

Fleximize's brilliant interactive visualisation illustrates wonderfully who’s worked with whom, and which companies they’ve set up or invested in. It makes for a fascinating web of business relationships, linking ex-PayPal people to more than 400 companies.

The Mafiosi's connections also reach beyond Silicon Valley, with their other ventures including private spaceflight business SpaceX, Hollywood movie Thank You for Smoking and FWD.us – a political campaigning group. They have also contributed to some of the Valley’s biggest investment funds, helping them stretch their reach even further.

See it to believe it

Check out how the former PayPal CTO Max Levchin is linked to Pinterest and Evernote. Did you know that PayPal’s ex-CEO, Peter Thiel has invested in more than 50 companies and set up Founders Fund, which invests in revolutionary tech?